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Daily Archives: Sept. 30, 2006
White House in a ‘State of Denial’
Sept. 30, 200612:02 a.m.
Bob Woodward’s new book, “State of Denial,” reportedly describes a White House that ignored urgent warnings from Iraq, dismissed assessments from U.S. commanders in Iraq, and was so dysfunctional that President Bush had to tell Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to return the phone calls of then-national security adviser Condoleezza Rice.
The book also reports that former White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card twice urged Bush to fire Rumsfeld — once with the support of first lady Laura Bush. But Bush didn’t do it, in part, Woodward reports, because Vice President Dick Cheney and political adviser Karl Rove told him not to.
More excerpts from the book, which isn’t released until Monday, will appear in the Washington Post this weekend. Woodward is also doing an interview on CBS’ “60 Minutes” Sunday.
Posted by Phillip Brownlee
Another complaint about Kline’s comparison
Sept. 30, 200612:01 a.m.
State Sen. Donald Betts, D-Wichita, seconded our complaint about Attorney General Phill Kline’s likening of an anti-abortion member of his staff to Rosa Parks and the Rev. Martin Luther King, calling on Kline to “refrain from using the titans of the civil-rights movement to advance his personal political agenda.” In response, Kline told the Associated Press Thursday, “What I’ve stated is that this nation has a long history of respecting civil disobedience and peaceful protest. And what I mentioned was that Rosa Parks was engaged in such, and I respect her for that expression.” Respecting civil disobedience is one thing, but the issue is whether it was wise for Kline to hire Bryan Brown as his consumer affairs chief in 2003, after Brown’s dozen arrests and failure to pay a $61,000 court judgment in Indiana.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
Time to give higher ed its due
Sept. 30, 200612:00 a.m.
During the fiscal crisis and school finance crisis, Kansas’ higher education system had to wait its turn for greater legislative attention and funding. But in the meantime, as we observed in an editorial, tuition hikes have pushed more and more burden onto students and their families, and the problem of deferred maintenance projects on campuses is up to more than $600 million. A new Kansas Board of Regents study also showed that the state’s portion of tax dollars supporting higher education has declined from 49 percent in 1985 to 29 percent last year, as the portion of funding that universities get from tuition has risen from 15 percent to 23 percent.
Some lawmakers will oppose more money for higher ed — perhaps by arguing, as Rep. Melvin Neufeld, R-Ingalls, has, that the universities have sought more independence and that employers now care less about degrees than specialized training. But as we argued, “most Kansans will see it as the state’s responsibility to give higher education the resources necessary to keep buildings in good condition and attract top professors and students.”
Posted by Rhonda Holman
